Ina Garten Swears That This Is The 'Key To Really Good Pastry'

Getting perfectly flakey pastry feels like a magic trick. We know someone knows how to do it because we've eaten deliciously light pastries before. Yet it seems impossible to achieve at home. Thankfully, Ina Garten is not one to hold her secrets close to her chest and shares tips like how to get perfectly leavened baked goods. In a recent Substack post, Garten also gave us a peak behind the baking curtain to reveal the secret to light and flakey pastry: ice cold butter.

The butter needs to be cold because as it starts to heat up in the oven, it steams the pastry from the inside, creating tiny holes and layers in the crust. This is the secret to making restaurant quality scones, biscuits, and croissants. Since firm ingredients might be harder to work with in a soft dough, you might try putting frozen butter into a box grater before incorporating it. It's also best if you don't use your hands to mix it in, since their warmth could melt the butter and undo all of your hard work. Instead, use a mixer, food processor, or even butter knives — anything that's cold!

Now that you know the secret, it's time to get in the kitchen. You'll want to use this on any baked good that benefits from airiness. Cold butter is one of the most important tips to getting the perfect pie crust. It's also important to incorporate cold butter into cheddar scallion buttermilk biscuits. However, you won't want to use ice cold butter with any sort of dessert that requires you to cream butter with sugar. 

Once you've mastered this trick, you'll also be able to laminate dough like a professional baker and whip up croissants and other flaky goodies. Keep in mind, though, that there are downsides to using frozen butter. Namely, if you want to use it today, you needed to put it in the freezer yesterday. With that in mind, it's a good idea to go ahead and put a stick or two in the freezer now. Your future pastry-eating self will thank you for it.